Elsja Down Under

Busy Busy August 7, 2010

I know I’m a terrible blogger. I guess that’s what happens when life gets in the way.  I could be writing about all the wedding stuff I’m doing at the moment, but time spent here means less time actually doing the wedding related tasks I so desperately need to do. So instead of daily blogging, you’ll just have to settle for this quick little update.

So a few weeks ago, our friends Kimbo and Stu moved back from South Africa (YAY) and Kimbo threw me a wonderful surprise “kitchen tea.” It was SO nice of her, especially considering she threw it one day after returning from S.A! Thanks again Kimbo and thanks to all the ladies who came out to help celebrate.

John and Kalee’s wedding was last weekend and we had a blast. I wasn’t going to drink too much since I had to fly the next day. Well not only did I do just that, I actually had a worse hangover than I’ve had in a long time. Not so good when you have to get on a plane for 14 hours with a head cold as well.

I spent Monday through Wednesday working all morning with a clogged nose and severe jetlag (aka nausea). Pretty sure that hangover and head cold didn’t set me off on the right foot. It was miserable. Even with that nasty funk I still managed to get  A LOT done this week. Since I’ve been back in CA this week I’ve already met with the caterers at the reception site to finalize the seating arrangements for the wedding. I’ve had my first dress fitting and an appointment with the florist. I’ve been to the gym 3 times, went to dinner twice. I spent two days at my sister’s new condo, went to her pool, went to Wild Rivers, went to a concert in the park. I’ve shopped… a lot. Too bad it’s mostly for stuff I NEED and less for stuff I want.  I spent a night playing Just Dance with Shannon. I saw Eclipse with Jen and Lisa. I caught up with a bunch of friends tonight at a UFC party and tomorrow is my bridal shower!! Oh, did I mention I worked all week as well?

It’s been brutal… but I’m surviving.

Sick In Sydney February 25, 2010

Back in Sydney, feeling miserable.

My trip to the US was great. I got SO much accomplished for the wedding and now there’s not much more I can do until August. That’s exciting and sad at the same time. The lower stress levels are beneficial, but the fun of planning will be missed. I suppose there are still a few things I can do from Australia, but a majority of it will all come in the last few weeks. Only 6 months to go now!!

My trip to Georgia was awesome as well. I had so much fun spending the weekend in beautiful Roswell with all my friends. It’s rare that we all get together now that we live in 4 different places, so it seems that weddings are the only things that ever bring us all together.

Amanda’s wedding was beautiful! The Clermont lounge was not beautiful. Let me paint a picture for you. The Clermont lounge is where a group of 16 or so of us went on Thursday night. Try to visualize this…a small dive bar, horrible rock band, thick layers of smoke (seriously, get with the times Georgia, why can you still smoke indoors?) and to top it all off… 60 year old strippers! WHAT? Yes, you read that right. There was a complete assortment of strippers from a super skinny tatooed girl to significantly overweight middle-aged girls wearing heinous outfits to a cute little old lady wearing a little red riding hood costume. Weirdest place I’ve ever been. The rest of the weekend was far less weird. The rehearsal cocktail party and wedding were full of much more taste and class (and less smoke), thank GOD!

The only thing that really sucks is that there must have been some funk going around in Atlanta because Shannon, Jen, Alison and I all caught a nasty bug. I haven’t been this sick since well before I met Andrew. I never get sick anymore and I honestly feel like I don’t even know how to respond to this. I feel like the biggest wuss. Will someone please send an un-packing fairy to take care of my luggage that has made it’s home on our living room floor?

Letters February 4, 2010

Dear Jet Lag,

I hate you. I really do. You make me so tired. You cause me to sleep through my alarm for over 10 minutes. TEN!! While this may not seem a lot to some people, let it be known that in an entire year, my alarm only goes off probably 10 times total! I always wake up before my alarm goes off, so to sleep through it for over TEN MINUTES is just not right. You cause me to wake up with a massive migraine and hangover feeling even though I only had 2 glasses of wine last night. Two glasses of wine plus jet lag = feeling like I drank 2 bottles of wine. NOT NICE!

Dear US Economy,

I hate you too. I thought I was immune to your black pit of misery and despair- but no, you finagled your nasty tenticles into my life as well and you’ve put a big damper on all my plans for 2010.

Dear Vaccination,

You made me feel like I had a migraine in my arm for about 36 hours. That was a week ago. Now, thanks to you, my arm is STILL sore. It’s not terrible, but enough to piss me off.

Dear Stupid OC Housewives,

Ok of course I’m not talking to all OC housewives- there are definitely many of you I like. I’m just speaking to the pathetic, fake, backstabbing trashbags. You are all scum. People like you often make me happy that I don’t live in this yuppy, stuck-up county anymore.

Dear Bob at Sir Speedy Printing,

You sent all your customers an email today asking “how is your 2010 so far?” Do you REALLY want me to answer that question? I know you just want some business- but what if I reply to your sales pitch email and just say “shitty.” I wonder what you would say to that.

Dear Andrew,

I miss you.

Yes, I am having a bad day.

The DMV November 25, 2009

WTF is up with the DMV? I know it’s always been a hell hole but I haven’t been there in probably 8 years and I swear it got worse. I arrived at 8:20am and there were literally probably 150 people already waiting. I drove through the parking lot once and then decided to park in some distant neighborhood. The lot was like a mall lot on Christmas eve. People driving around in circles, dodging pedestrians left and right, it was crazy! Inside there were probably 100 chairs set up and they were ALL full. I REALLY wanted to take a picture to show Andrew how insane it was but I didn’t think I’d be able to do it discretely.

Did I mention that they don’t take credit cards? You probably knew that already, but seeing as how I haven’t been there in over 8 years, I just kind of assumed they would be a “modern” organization and take plastic. Do they realize how many poor people come through that place? Some people wouldn’t be able to pay the $28 license fee if they couldn’t use a credit card. (Yes Aussies, you heard that right, $28 for a 4 year license).They take personal checks (which surely bounce ALL the time) but they won’t take credit cards. Idiots. Unfortunately for me, my debit card is back in Australia with Andrew and so I’ve been living off cash and credit while I’ve been in CA. I had $23 bucks in my wallet when I got in line. I needed $28. I tried using my Australian debit card… that didn’t work. She politely said “You can run to the bank and just come back straight to me.”- Yes! That is EXACTLY what I feel like doing. Going to the bank to get out $5 measly bucks so I can come back to this hell hole and pay for my new license from a state that I don’t even live in. Some might say “why bother?” Well, unfortunately some eating and drinking establishments (i.e. restaurants and bars) don’t accept foreign ID and as I’m about to explain, some banks don’t either!

So since I was $5 short, I had to go wait for the bank to open at 9am in order to get cash out. I had to sit there for 25 minutes to get $5. How fun!They didn’t know what to do with my Aussie license, I didn’t bring my passport because I didn’t plan on having to make a trip to the bank that morning and when I showed them my US ID, they couldn’t accept it because it is expired. Duh, that’s why I need the money in the first place! Such a pain in the ass!! Finally I got the cash but seriously, not having my atm/debit card really made things difficult.

With all that said I probably would have been out of there in 15 minutes if I didn’t have to leave, walk to my car, wait at the bank, get money, drive back, park, and wait again to talk to the same lady. Making an appointment REALLY speeds things up. I felt really bad for the other 150 people waiting their turn. I hope they packed their lunches.

The Long Journey… Part 3 November 11, 2009

So I get to the airport and go straight to the line to check in. As luck would have it, the baggage belts were broken so once I got my boarding pass I actually had to hang around for about 15 minutes with my bags until the belts started working. I then waited at the gate and was seated next to the most obnoxious Aussie guy ever. He just sat there bitching and moaning, saying things like “come ooooonnnn,” “geeeeeeeeeeez” and “hurry up!” (all under his breath of course but just loud enough to be totally annoying). This trip was starting off just as stellar as the first attempt. I almost got up to move but I waited2 seconds too long and got sucked into a conversation with him when he started talking. UGH! Finally some guy he knew (because we were all BFFs from the day before) walked up and that was my chance to bolt. I used the bathroom as an excuse and luckily when I returned we were all boarding (about an hour late!)  To get to the air bridges everyone had to go down one of those people mover escalator things. Well, I think I was the only genius that realized it would take forever to get down that thing when 300 other people were lined up trying to do the same thing. I took the elevator (alone) and walked onto the plane before almost everyone else. Idiots.  Finally we all did board and took off with no more glitches. It seemed as if 99% of the passengers were from the day before; however, there were way less people. I guess there were quite a few people who didn’t want to get back on the A380. I did though, I wanted the flat bed!

The flight was uneventful. Probably the least turbulent of all my flights. I watched a few movies and TV shows and checked out a new bridal magazine. I only slept about 2 hours which meant that when I landed, I felt like a zombie. Unfortunately for my mom all the flight screens showed that we were flying in from Sydney at 7:40am. I suppose technically we were, but she was expecting a flight from Melbourne so when we were over an hour late- she struggled to figure out where we were. It didn’t help that we were flight 11 from Sydney (via Melbourne) but there was another flight 11 from Sydney arriving at the same time.

The whole trip was chaos… but I made it, I finally made it!  Now I am here in Huntington with my family and  friends. I finally get to do some real wedding planning and it’s so much fun!  Only downside? I miss Andrew

The Long Journey Across the Pacific: Part 1 November 7, 2009

I’ll start from the beginning…

It was a sunny Sydney Friday around 1:15pm and I had just arrived at the airport to check in for my flight to LA. I immediately received a business boarding pass which was awesome considering I was on standby. The plane was loaded in a timely manner but then we waited at the gate for some unknown reason for another 30 minutes before starting to taxi out to the runway. Finally we headed out towards the entrance to the runway where we proceeded to sit for another 15 minutes or so.We thought we were waiting our turn to take off, we were wrong. It was at this point that the captain made his first announcment. “Hi folks, unfortunately we’ve got a problem with the fuel management system that I’m not comfortable with. We’re going to call the engineers but we need to let you know there is a chance that we might have to return to the gate.” It was at this exact moment that I had the feeling I wouldn’t be getting to LA the next morning.

Ten minutes later.  “Ok folks, well it looks like unfortunately we’re going to have to return to the gate to have our engineers check this out. We’ll keep you posted with any updates and we appreciate your patience.”

One hour later (it is now about 5:00, we were supposed to take off at 3:10). “Alright, thank you for your patience. We think we’ve solved the problem… (pause)…put it this way, we don’t see the problem any more so we’re going to go ahead and taxi out so we can be on our way to Los Angeles.” Many people were not very comfortable with his choice of words. I admit, it probably wasn’t the best way to let everyone know what was going on, but I wasn’t worried. I just wanted to go!

About 2 hours after takeoff.  “Hello folks, it’s your captain again, I have some bad news. Unfortunately that fuel pump issue is still causing some problems and we are not going to be able to continue on to LA at this time. We have a few options. We could head to Fiji, but we don’t know how you will be treated there (read this), we could go to Melbourne but we don’t really think that’s the best choice so we think the best plan would be to go back to Sydney, so were going to turn around. Those of you watching the travel route on your screens will see that we’ve already started to turn.”

2 hours later.  “Hello this is your captain again. Well we’ve made it back to Sydney but unfortunately there is some heavy traffic and Air Traffic Control is having us hold for awhile until it clears up. We anticipate that we should be on the ground around 9:28pm.”

9:30pm. “Hello it’s your captain again. Well as you can see, 9:28 has come and passed. Unfortunately while we were waiting to land the weather in Sydney took a turn for the worse. There is a lot of rain and the ground is very wet, so unfortunately we will not be able to land here and we’re going to have to divert to Melbourne.”

Around 10:30 pm. We finally landed SOMEWHERE. It wasn’t LA, it wasn’t Sydney, but it was solid ground and after more than 7 hours in a plane going nowhere, solid ground was nice.

Luckily everyone in business class was told where we would be staying immediately before exiting the plane. This meant we didn’t have to stand in line with 200 other passengers to try to figure  out our accommodation details. THANK GOD! It also meant that I got to walk right across the street to a super nice hotel where I finally checked in  around 11:30pm and the 2nd part of my journey continued. Well, it wasn’t actually part of the  journey per se but some other stranded travellers did help to at least make the night more interesting.

Part 2 coming soon…

In summary:

*Part 1 of the journey- 11.5 hours from my front door to the bed at the hotel.

*Obviously this is all paraphrased but I’m pretty sure I underestimated the number of times “unfortunately” was used and I definitely should have included many more apologies, there were TONS of those.

*There’s a tiny, and I mean TINY, story about the incident here. Evidently the version on the news was much more entertaining. Supposedly we had an “emergency landing.”  The TV reporters clearly did not get their facts straight, what’s new?

Time Travel July 6, 2009

I completely skipped the 4th of July this year. I left LA on the 3rd and didn’t arrive in Sydney until July 5th. The 4th just did not exist for me. Do you want to know how I missed the 4th? Apart from crossing the International Dateline over the pacific, I think it also had something to do with the fact that I was traveling in a space ship.

I swear, the silver space pod looking seats in the WONDERFUL new A380 business class were so cool and high tech that it didn’t even feel like I was on an airplane. There was a massager on the chair, and the head rest was super cushy and cozy and check out how much room is between each seat!! The TVs were ginormous touch screens, the lights in the morning come on slowly- getting brighter and brighter over time – just like the sun. This is definitely a nice way to travel!

This is what I looked like for about 8 of the 14.5 hours of flying:

Missing Australia June 22, 2009

I’m definitely happy to be home, and I’m loving spending time with my friends and family- but there a a few things I am missing.

1. Andrew. Feels like I haven’t seen him in forever and it’s only been 5 days! I still have almost 2 weeks before I see him again.

2. TV that doesn’t include the Tru TV station. Don’t get me wrong- I truly enjoy the vast variety of stations here and I’ve been excited to flip through them all over the last few weeks- but why is it that everyone here (i.e. my dad and brother-in-law) ONLY want to watch Tru TV??? I just would like to say that is the worst TV station EVER! “Tru TV, not reality, Actuality.” I’d like to change the slogan to “Tru TV, not reality, just plain SHIT.” Operation Repo is satan’s latest crap contribution to cable TV and I do NOT understand how ANY civilized human being can enjoy that show. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed my fair share of reality shows and pointless TV in the past- but this show has to take the top prize for the worst thing on air. I cannot believe those fat, ghetto, painted-eyebrow scum are probably making WAY more money than me. Why did I go to school again?

For those of you who may not have been blessed enough to see this show yet… here is one of the cast members:

I think I liked her better in her first movie, The Little mermaid:

3. Yoga. I haven’t been in weeks!! Oooh how I miss it. Sure I could go here, but that would involve paying money- and I don’t like paying money for classes. I’d rather vacuum and wash mirrors for free classes! Then I can spend money on other non-essential items like Ugg boots, giant packs of orbitz gum, grape vodka and a pocket pie maker.

That’s all really. I’m happy with everything else here… the weather (finally), the comfy guest bed I’m sleeping in, they gym (for some unknown reason I find the gym here MUCH more tolerable than the one at home), Pei Wei, Panera, cheap brewed ice tea at every restaurant I go to, free refills!!! I just want Andrew back here. Either that or I want bring 3 months worth of Strawberry Poppy seed salad home with me and then just fast forward a few months so I can skip the Sydney winter all together. Oh and if they could open a Pei Wei or Panera in Sydney, that would be awesome. It’s not a far fetched dream- they did after all open up a Counter Burger.

Airports June 17, 2009

Airports used to be exciting places. Going to an airport meant you were going somewhere cool or picking up loved ones who were coming to visit! Now 90% of the time, airports are filled with goodbyes for me. I’m almost always saying goodbye to someone. When I flew here I had to say adios to Andrew thinking I wouldn’t see him for 3 weeks.  Then he ended up making it out here which was awesome, but tonight I just had to drop him off and say goodbye again for another 2 weeks.  I also had to say goodbye to my sister and her family from Texas tonight since they’ll be heading off to the airport tomorrow. And then in 2 weeks I’ll have to say goodbye to my friends and family once more when I head back to Australia. Seriously, there aren’t too many happy trips to the airport these days. Even when I’m really excited to see one person (or group of people) I’m always having to say goodbye to someone else I love in the process.

I don’t like goodbyes. I’ve had WAY too many of them in my lifetime (well,  really in the last 3.5 years), but I guess that’s what happens when you are in a long distance relationship forever and then move all the way across the world.

California Shopping & Dining June 3, 2009

What is it about going back to California that gives me this incredible urge to shop and eat? I don’t even typically like shopping all that much (unless it’s for home and kitchen goods) and even just a week ago I thought to myself “I won’t be buying much when I go home, I’ll save some money.”

Yeah, right.

That all changed. I leave for California tomorrow and of course I’m excited to see my friends and family but I’m also really excited to go shopping. So much for my plan to make this a cheap trip. I just can’t resist! I pretty much ONLY shop when I go home. I still think I’ve probably bought less than 10 items of clothing since I moved here. Shoes? 2 pairs since moving. I’ve been here almost 2 years people! That is an accomplishment for a girl!! However, the lack of my shopping down under means I go a bit crazy when I go back to the states. I probably could have squeezed all of my stuff into one big suitcase- or maybe one big and one little. But, I’m bringing 2 big ones to lug back all the stuff I buy while I’m away!

Here’s a little snapshot of a few of my favorite places that I intend to visit while I’m back:

California, here I come! I’ll be there Thursday, bright and early!!

Babbling January 10, 2009

It’s nice to be back in Calirfornia… but it’s weird. I was welcomed by chilly weather, fog and an earthquake last night! After being in 90 degree heat and bathing suits, it definitely feels strange to be thrown into the cold where I now require scarves and jackets.

LUCKILY I love winter clothing MUCH more than summer stuff (even though I love summer weather). So I hit the shops yesterday to get a few sweaters and some other articles of clothing. It’s amazing that I actually found things I like- the last time I was in California all of the clothes in the shops were hideous and made me want to barf. 

So… now my foot is hurting more. Is it because I sat on the plane for 13 hours and then walked around shopping for a few hours? Or… is it because it’s cold? I always hear how broken bones ache more in the chilly weather- but mine is more my ankle that is hurting. You know what I bet it is? I haven’t been able to use my WiiFit in 2 whole days How sad, I miss it.

I also miss my wonderful Andrew. I haven’t been away from him in a long time. Ok… so we were apart for a week in august, but before that we weren’t apart since March. It’s amazing how we used to be so happy when we got to see each other for more than 2 weeks in a row. Now I dread 2 weeks apart! But I’m happy to have time with my family and friends!

In fact, I’m really looking forward to tomorrow. My family is having a late Christmas I think Andrew thinks it’s weird that my mom left the tree up and she’s making a turkey dinner and everything. BUUUUT I met a girl on the plane from Canada and we got to talking. She asked if this was my first Christmas away from home and I said “yes.” Her reply was “ME TOO, but my mom is having another Christmas for me.” So I replied “ME TOO… and she left the tree up and is making turkey dinner. Then she exclaimed “ME TOO.” So see… it’s not abnormal- we just have nice moms who want us to have our nice Christmas, even if it is a bit late.

…That’s enough babbling for the day! Happy weekend everybody

My Year in Review January 2, 2009

2008 was a good year… full of ups and downs, but luckily more ups than downs I would say. Let’s look back on my 2008… 

January ** I rung in the new year with my sisters in Laguna ** I did the God awful Master Cleanse detox diet **

 

** Andrew and I spent Valentines day on our couch, with a bottle of wine **  I pretty much spent the whole month preparing for Jen’s shotgun wedding (shower & bachelorette party) **  February 

March  ** I went home to California for Jen and James’ wedding- it was beautiful  ** We had Jen’s bachelorette party and wedding shower… so much fun!  **My niece Emma turned 5 and I got to be with her at her birthday party **

 

** My nephew Preston turned 8… he’s getting so old  ** I started my 101 in 1001 list  **April 

May  ** Andrew got a letter of intent from Qanta Mainline (international flying)… it’s been his dream and goal for years! Now we are STILL waiting on a start date…   **  Andrew and I went to Maui with my sister and her family **  

 

June  ** My sister Jan got married, unfortunately I couldn’t go to the wedding  **  ** My poor puppy Emmi died of cancer. Damn cancer!  ** Andrew and I started saving to try to buy an apartment  **July 

August  **  Andrew and I went to CA to visit my family and friends  ** We then went to Costa Rica and had an amazing time **  Andrew got to meet my sister in Texas and her kids for the first time **

 

September  ** This month marked the 1 year anniversary of when I moved to Australia  ** I Turned 28 over the international dateline on our flight back to Sydney ** 

October  ** I went to my first Australian “footy” game… the NRL Grand Final * After months of preparation, I Got my Australian residency ** Andrew turned 28 **

November  ** Andrew and I went to Perth to visit some of his family and I flew business for the very first time **  I voted in the US presidential election  ** We celebrated Thanksgiving in Australia and I cooked my first Thanksgiving dinner all by myself… including pumpkin pie from fresh pumkins ** I Broke my foot and sprained my ankle while trying to catch the bouquet at Bec and Olly’s wedding  **

 

**  I spent my first ever Christmas away from my family and friends… but got to spend my first Christmas ever with Andrew  **  I got HOOKED on the best book… Twilight. Seriously, I couldn’t get what all the hype was about, but now I clearly understand how those nerdy kids read Harry Potter in a day. I read Twilight in 2 1/2 – and I hardly EVER read **  I bought a Wii! YAY. This also means I get to cross one more item off my 101 list- #72. buy a wii    **  Andrew got me a WiiFit for Christmas and I’m anxiously waiting for my foot to heal so I can balance on it and have some fun!   **  Andrew got promoted to Captain with his current job   ** I spent New Years eve with Andrew at Cremorne point watching the fireworks over Sydney Harbour- which is exactly what I’ve been wanting to do for the last 3 years. **December 

*** This year we went to 4 weddings, plus got invited to 2 more that we couldn’t attend. I made new friends and got in touch with some old ones. Some had some babies, some lost loved ones, some found love, some lost jobs, some had successes. I think 2008 was financially and emotionally tough on a lot of people, let’s hope 2009 sees things turn around!!!  HAPPY NEW YEAR!

PS. I give up on formatting this damn blog…wordpress can kiss my ass with its crappy text editor  

Moving Forward November 5, 2008

So obviously, Obama won. I guess that’s old news now and everyone and their mother will be blogging about it- so I will just say this…

CONGRATS OBAMA! I really hope things can now turn around and the rest of the world can start to look at the US in a more positive light.

I thought I’d point out to all the aussies, some of the benefits of voting for the US public. While Australians HAVE to vote by law (or put up with a fine if they don’t) there are MANY benefits of voting in the US. In addition to selecting the new president, you can also receive the following:

Free Chicken Sandwich: Most Chick-fil-a locations

Free Coffee: Any Books A Million store today

Free Coffee: Any Starbucks location

Free Donut: Any Krispy Kreme store (and it’s a red, white, and blue donut, too!)

Free Ice Cream: Any Ben and Jerry’s between 5 and 8 p.m.

Free Song Downloads: A handful of free MP3 downloads are available at MTV’s Rock The Vote right now for anyone pledging to vote

Free Taco: Any California Tortilla store (in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and West Virginia)

Free Sex Toy: Snag a free Silver Bullet or Maverick device at any Babeland store in New York, LA, or Seattle. Limited locations, but we figured this one was unique enough to warrant a mention!

And that’s just a small list… too bad I couldn’t receive all these freebies here in Australia!

**

So in other more personal news, Andrew and I went to Perth this weekend. We went to visit his nana as well as his aunt and uncle who live just outside the city. Andrew lived in Perth until he was almost 7 so we were able to see 2 of the houses that he grew up in. It was a really quick trip- we arrived Saturday night and left Monday afternoon. Sunday we rode our bikes an hour to the main city of Perth and watched the awesome Red Bull air race. We didn’t plan our trip around the race, but it was kind of convenient that it was taking place the weekend we were around. Since my old version of wordpress is retarded and it no longer lets me upload videos to my blog… you will have to click here to see one of the cool videos we took:

CRAZY PILOTS FLYING PLANES REALLY LOW AND FAST

Then on the way back, we saw a random fire on the side of the freeway and had to call 000 (911) for the “fire brigade” to come out. It was small, but spreading quickly and heading towards a bunch of dry brush. That was pretty exciting.

Here are some pictures from the weekend:

PERTH PICS

And here is the BEST picture from the bunch… this is a lovely photo of me flying in business class. Oh it was so wonderful. I got to fly across the country twice in a big comfy seat with loads of free wine (although I didn’t have as much as I could have) and I enjoyed pretty good food, a plate of cheese and crackers and chocolate covered macadamias while I watched movies on my own personal TV in our private business class area. You know that little curtain that separates business class from economy? Well, it was REALLY nice to be on the other side of that curtain for once  And, I even get to cross another item off my 101 list… #56. Fly Business Class. I really can’t wait until I get to fly business class on all my flights to and from LA. One day!

America vs. Australia October 1, 2008

Lately I’ve been reading a lot on blogs and in forums about how Australians have a negative outlook on Americans and the American culture. It’s really starting to annoy me really. After watching a video on Laura’s blog, I felt compelled to refute some of the aussie negative stereotypes of Americans.Americans are all really fat:

Americans are a bunch of “ditzy cheerleaders”-

Americans are arrogant:

Americans think the world revolves around them:

Americans are rude:

Introductions August 18, 2008

Did I mention how much fun I am having with Andrew here in CA with me? Did I mention how happy I am? Oh… no, I didn’t. That’s because I’ve been too busy and having too much fun to blog this week.  But I’m taking a moment from my day to fill you all in on some happy times and important introductions that took place this week.

1. Andrew and I were both introduced to Ruth’s Chris for dinner-YUM! It was delish but I think I probably gained 17lbs from that one meal alone.

2. We went out on Friday night to O’Mallys. I thought it was just going to be Andrew and I with Jen and a couple other people because most of our friends were out that night at a birthday party, but tons of people ended up showing up and it was a really fun time. So not only was Andrew introduced to many of my friends, he also had a little too much fun when Brad introduced him to Patron (pronounced petrone for you aussies). Andrew also wants to direct the attention of you Aussies to the size of the shot glasses…

Andrew said this is how he felt before 5 tequilla shots:

And this is how he felt after 5 shots:

3. I was happy to introduce Andrew a few American favorites… LA Baseball and Dodger dogs.

 

4. And lastly (for the week) I was only too happy to introduce Andrew to another type of Mexican beer… Pacifico. In fact, I introduced him to quite a few pacificos, throwing in one chugging contest between the two of us at the end of it all. If it weren’t so cold (giving me a brain freeze), I might have won. Oh and we enjoyed our Mexican beer in the warm sun on the Island of Catalina. We headed there for the day with my parents and enjoyed some lunch, mini golf and drunky sunbathing. Such a nice day. I seriously love summer.

Only a few more days until I will introduce Andrew to the awesome country of Costa Rica! I can’t wait!